Thursday, November 24, 2011

Beware of Fake Pinarello Bikes, Part II

Back in March, here, we discussed the topic of the fake Pinarello bikes coming out of Asia. The fake Dogmas could be identified by slight differences from the real Pinarello bikes. With the Pinarello release of the new Dogma2 the counterfeiters have also become more precise and the visual differences between a real Dogma2 and a fake is becoming much more difficult to determine.

Fake Dogma2s:

Buy only from authorized dealers to ensure you are not buying a fake Pinarello.

Pinarello now has addeed this statement on their website:"The Pinarello Group would like to communicate to all of its customers that preventive measures and legal action have been undertaken in order to protect our trademarks, patents and goods worldwide. This move is to prevent the increasing instances of counterfeiting and the sale of non-original or fake products. Intellectual property is fundamental for our group and is guaranteed through the registration and maintenance of trademarks and patents around the world.

The Pinarello Group, from today, shall devote considerable time & effort in order to monitor the trafficking of counterfeit goods via the internet. The aim is to combat the growing phenomenon of fake products in the marketplace. At the same time, we shall also be sending a strong message to offenders by having their counterfeit Pinarello products removed from popular online auction and general websites.

We wish to inform our customers that all our products are sold exclusively via our official Pinarello Dealers and Points; you can find your closest dealer by visiting our official website www.pinarello.com . Our resellers are at your complete disposal and shall provide you with all the information required prior to the purchase of our products/s. We remind that our warranty and the after-sale services are only available upon the purchase of our genuine & original products."

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16 comments:

What a shame. Too bad they didn't think about this possibility BEFORE they decided to have their bikes made in a place with little to no respect for intellectual property, etc. I doubt these fake Pinarello's are being manufactured in Italy after all.

I'd guess ANY of the "Italian" brands who make some (if not all) of their high-priced bikes in Asia are fighting this problem. Valentino Campagnolo mentioned the theft of intellectual property in Asia as one his reasons to avoid setting up plants there. The decision was made long ago by some that the higher profits from low-cost labor were worth the risks...and now it seems that might not have been such a wise move. I'm happy to see more and more advertising in Italian mags touting "100% Made in Italy"...which means someone must still care about this - though it's not the North American market dominated by the big-three names, who make 99% of their bikes in China. The tough thing for Larry to understand is why these Chinese-made bikes don't reflect the ultra-low wages paid to the actual makers in their retail prices? When you look on ebay and see these things for $300 each, it's tough to understand why they must be marked up 10 or 20 times this amount to the final purchaser?

Thank you Larry and Heather for articulating what I have felt all along. Bike manufacturers who use underpaid Asian workers to produce their machines in countries where people have no love for bike racing, only to sell these machines at huge markups to 1st world customers have made a deal with the Devil and deserve eternal damnation.To do this with low cost machines are one thing, but to use this method to produce the high end bikes we all lust after is adding insult to injury.

I've bought a Pinarello imitation and I think there's an argument to be made.

First of all, I'm not buying a Pinarello. I'm buying a Pinarello imitation. There's definitely a difference. It's not as light, it's not as stiff, it's not as generally good as a real Pinarello. But at the same time, I don't expect it to be, and I don't want to be. Again, I'm not buying a Pinarello. If I wanted a Pinarello, I'd buy one.

I pay less, but get less. I can't emphasize this enough: I don't buy a Pinarello. Not the quality control, not the warranty, not the stiffness, lightness, paint, or anything like that.

These warnings are rediculous, 99.9% of people buying are fully aware the frames are imitation... As for safety, I am amaZed with how few failure reports ive senn given the many thousands of online forum savy buyers getting these frames!

What you mean with "imitation"? Come on guys. All "Chinarello's" are the same of Pinarello's frames. They're produced in the same factory. The matter is normally they're frames rejected during quality control process or taken by workers to sell it through Aliexpress, Dhgate etc. Of course it can involves just aesthetic issues or even defects. Is clear that if you buy a frame Chinarello you won't have guarantee or customer services, but the frame itself is not fake. It is an illegal sold frame, but not fake.

I challenge you to put side-by-side a Pinarello and a Chinarello and try to figure out any difference.

I concur Edson's statement. Fake infers that someone went out and designed a close to factory item. Most, if not all these "so-called-Fakes" are built side by side with the legit ones; and probably not even QA defects-just not accounted for in the production run. I would love for someone to actually post a comparison of the difference between these "fakes" and a real $5000 USD Pinarello frame..

Just to set the record straight, I own a genuine Pina Prince (Caisse Team replica) and recently purchased a Chinarello Dogma 60.1 (Movistar) frame for $A399. I have built it up with Dura-ace and MOst components and it looks awesome. The ride is very good indeed, but lacks the "zing" and solid feel of the real article. It all comes back to "you get what you pay for". If the frame shits itself in 12 months, who cares?? I'll just buy another one for hack rides and training and keep the Prince for races etc.

All this American and Italian companies had taking those jobs to china. and sell all those frame like if were made by people in our countries, well you get what you paid. I know is wrong sell those frames with brand names, but also is unfair make us paid so much when the decide to manufacture them in china.